Charge Plug 2011 Fixed Gear Bike

Reviews — 01 May 2011

Charge’s fixed gear bike called the “Plug” is Charge’s first fixed gear single speed bike. The Charge Plug has been featured in many magazines and is another great looking bike to add to Charges range.The Charge “Plug” is one of the most popular fixed gear bikes in the UK, with a great design and build quality its quite easy to see why its so popular.

The 2011 Charge “Plug” model still has the same great looks as the previous years model, and is available in a range of colours. Colours include China blue, Navy blue and Green.Lots of great Charge accessories are on the Plug including the “Spoon” Seat in brown and “Slice” Handle bars. To complete the look the Plug comes with the very recognisable white and red Charge logo.

The Plug frame and parts.

The Charge Plug is made out of “Tange” heat treated steel tubing and comes with horizontal drop outs which you would expect on a signal speed bike. The charge plug has a nice stiff feel when riding the bike which is probably helped along with the butted head tube and Charge’s own “Whisk” fork at the front end.
The Charge Plug is available in 4 different sizes which include extra small, small, Medium and large. It also offers a decent tyre clearance, which allows you to comfortable place a set of large tyres on the bike if you want.

The Detail

Charge have chucked a lot of their own fantastic products on the Charge Plug. Including as mentioned above the Charge “Spoon” seat, “Slice” bars and Charge Ubend bar tape.The Plug comes with a set of Wellgo pedals which is only thing we would like to see different on the bike as they are not that great in the wet.
At the front is a 42 tooth “Sugino RD2” chainring accompanied at the rear by a Dicta 16T sprocket. This makes the Charge plug a little tough to get going, but is brilliant when you get up to speed. The rear hub is the very nice flip/flop hub, which will allow you to change from single speed to fixed gear quickly and easily.

The wheels on the Charge plug are the very robust Alex DM18 which are a very nice set of rims and are strong enough to deal with the occasional Pot hole or curb impact. The wheels are more than capable of handling some hardcore riding as Chris Akrigg has proved in the past in may of his videos.

Charge Plug Summary

If you are looking for a fixed gear bike to have a bit of fun at your local park, or wish to use it to get about on back and forth from the office! The Charge Plug is the one for you! Fun to ride, built to last and you wont have to remortgage our house to get your hands on one.
Below we have highlighted some of the main features of the 2011 Charge Plug.
Frame: Tange heat treated with Horizontal drop outs

Fork: Navy Blue / Tange Plug Cromoly

Chainset: Sugino RD2 Messenger

Chainrings: 42 tooth

Bottom Bracket: TH industries 7420ST

Cassette: Dicta 16 tooth freewheel

Chain: Charge Masher silver

Pedals: Wellgo

Brakes: Tektro R316

Brake Levers: Promax 239A

Handlebars: Charge Slice bar, with laser charge logo

Stem: Alloy 3D forged, with laser Charge logo

Headset: FSA TH Industries